Locally at the slow (<4 cm. yr-1) and ultra slow-spreading (<2 cm. yr-1) mid-oceanic ridges (MOR), axial valley bounding walls develop corrugated surfaces, these surfaces are formed by large offset (between 9-30 km) normal faults, called detachment faults. These faults exhume mantle-derived rocks (peridotite, serpentinized peridotite, gabbro) to the seafloor.
My research focuses on the structure, lithology, and strain localization at active detachment fault by using HR bathymetry, submersible dive videos, and rock samples to understand better the tectonic, deformation and fluid-rock interaction processes associated with the formation and evolution of the young oceanic lithosphere in context of magma starved ultraslow seafloor spreading.